The Rise Of The Roomba Vacuum Shows There Is Huge Business Potential In The Home Robot Industry

iRobot, a Massachusetts company, has shipped more than 10 million Roomba robotic vacuums since the device launched in 2002, and it's shipping over 1 million Roomba units annually.

In a new report from BI Intelligence we reveal that iRobot has shipped over 6 million home robots, including Roombas, in the last four years and a half. We also assess the market for consumer and office robots, taking a close look at the three distinct applications within this market, and how this emerging category now represents nearly all the growth in the increasingly diverse global robotics industry.

Consider:

We believe the market for home and office robots will grow from $673 million in 2014 to $1.5 billion in 2019, for a five-year CAGR of 17.39%. Note: Our estimate for the size of the consumer/office robot market excludes devices marketed to children as toys.

That means the market for consumer and office robots is growing seven times faster than the one for industrial robots.

One company, iRobot, is set to break the $500 million revenue mark this year on the back of home robots.

iRobot's success has attracted major manufacturers to the robotic floor cleaning market, including LG, Samsung, Neato, Hoover and others. Robotic vacuums have only achieved ~15% penetration in North America, Europe, and Asia. (See chart, below.)

In full, the report:

Dives into why the multibillion-dollar global market for robotics, long dominated by industrial and logistics uses, has begun to see a shift toward new consumer and office applications.

Explains how the consumer/office robot market is currently led by three distinct categories: home cleaning and maintenance, “telepresence” (i.e., telecommuting to events or remote offices), and advanced home entertainment robots.

Analyzes why smartphones and tablets have made it easier to develop robots for consumer and office applications.

Looks at why would-be robot vendors face some major obstacles: one is the well-studied revulsion that most people feel toward robots that are too humanoid in appearance, and another is the high price demanded for key object manipulation technologies.

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